THE

LIBERTARIAN

ENTERPRISE

It Can't Happen Here?

Empire is expensive. We have the possibility of a civilian death toll
dwarfing anything since the Civil War. We have as blood enemies,
literally hundreds of millions of our fellow humans. And we have
increasing calls for further reductions in personal liberty.

"But we will not allow this enemy to win the war by changing our way
of life or restricting our freedoms." says President George W. Bush.

If only that were true. The next time you're forced to show your
'papers' ask yourself how credible President Bush's promise is. Read
his lips. Also, remember that this is the 'leader' who scurried from
airbase to airbase, waiting for an all-clear.

The disarming and feminization of America has proceeded to such an
extent that a couple of Arabs with knives and box cutters can subdue
a hundred US citizens and plunge them to their deaths. Have we heard
calls for Americans to arm themselves? Of course not. The question
now is whether all pocket knives should be banned during air travel.

Airport terminals are perhaps the most Stalinist places extant in the
United States. Fat lot of good the photo IDs and x-ray scanners did
against a determined enemy. In fact, the argument can easily be made
that our own dictatorial security procedures doomed thousands in New
York and Washington DC. Would that even one armed American have been
aboard that second airliner that hit the World Trade Center. How many
lives would have been saved?

Rather than take the eminently sensible action of allowing any US
citizen to exercise his God-given right to bear arms anywhere,
including airliners, look for airports to descend from being outposts
from the old Soviet Union to being even harsher. Expect full searches
of all luggage and perhaps even body searches as well, if you happen
to fit a suspicious 'profile.'

Nor will this be confined to our air terminals. All public buildings
will fall under a similar dictatorial regimen.

Look for increases in SWAT budgets in most US communities. Expect
'dynamic entries' by these storm troopers to increase in the name of
'combating terrorism.' This will also bleed over even more into the
duties and weaponry of the 'street cop.' Don't be surprised to see
Officer Friendly armed with a fully automatic MP5 and dressed in
black when he asks for your papers.

How about the drug war? You'll soon be seeing reports of how profits
from illegal drugs contribute to international terrorism and hear
calls for the war on drugs to be heightened and expanded. An ignorant
public, in a state of fear, will support this.

Posse Comitatus: Expect this venerable law to become a dead letter,
even more than it has. Don't be surprised to see active duty troops
and national guard units taking on a greater and greater part in
formerly local law enforcement.

Despite their total failure at providing security, look for the
expansion of the federal Gestapo 'alphabet agencies.' Their power
over ordinary citizens will increase as they assume 'oversight'
control of local law enforcement agencies during ever-increasing
states of emergency.

Beware of our Congress. Expect a spate of new legislation to further
increase the federal footprint in our lives. More specifically,
expect further attacks on the 2nd Amendment, with the full backing of
both political parties, the executive branch and the courts.

Empire is expensive, both in treasure, liberty -- and blood. The
lessons of 9/11 quite clearly point out how the modern state acts to
destroy our society and the aftermath of the attacks promise to bring
nothing but an escalation of state power.

In prophetic and unfortunately out-of-print novel 'It Can't Happen
Here', Sinclair Lewis tells a cautionary tale about the rise of
fascism in the United States. During the presidential election of
1936, Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, sees many of the people he
knows supporting the candidacy of a fascist, Berzelius Windrip.
Windrip wins the election and also gains control of Congress and the
Supreme Court. Then using storm troopers, he turns the United States
into a totalitarian state.

Lewis painted with a very broad brush, but I'd argue that we're well
on our way to achieving the totalitarian state pictured in his novel.
The events of 9/11 will do nothing but hasten the day.

The Republic is dead. Prepare yourselves for Empire.

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